Ekelund24

Two full seasons in the Championship both finished with playoff positions - in which they were promoted once. Granted crap in the Premiership but consistant at this level. I think it is unfair to call them a long ball team, they play direct football into a physically strong and quick forward (although not sure why he picked Rasiak for that job!!!!)

Sturrock had 14 pts in first 10

There must be Crocodiles in the Tyne

I would imagine the bulk of the scar tissue would've been removed in the last or a seperate operation and that the slow rebuild of muscle around the knee along with the re-attachment of ligaments and the addition of new cartildge will make it as strong or stronger than before. Add that to the fact he is a psycho of a defender and won't bottle anything I think he will be back in the Sweden squad before the next World Cup

Last season his performances were poor, although I do take your point that he barely played and that was down to the random selection policy of GB, however, a decent player would gut it out train harder and force his way into the team. An example of this would be the James Beattie that came back into the team after a poor start to the 2002-03 season and scored 24 league goals by working his ass off and improving to become the top scoring English striker in the league

I'm getting used to his name but haven't quite got it yet and that is the nearest name I have to it :-) He looks a class apart though especially if Gillett plays like a terrier in midfield with him pressuring mistakes. I thought that all the forward players defended very well putting pressure on Stoke and forcing them into mistakes and hopefull long ball!!!!

There were loads of positives in the first half and the best football we have played in years. Gillet, Lallana and Schindler as a CM three worked the ball very well and the defensive two got stuck in without giving away needless fouls. We moved the ball very quickly all over the team and will run some teams ragged, IF we can get the wide forwards behind the defence to cut the ball back we could see a lot of goals this year. Second half was horrible compared to the first, Wotton was shocking as was Thomas which made Parkin and Pericard look like world beaters!! Rasiak won't fit into the new system and needs to be offloaded asap. John looked good and maybe better suited to the central forward position than McGoldrick who may be best as one of the wide forwards. Dyer played ok no more no less, needs to stop coming inside and try going outside his man, although to his credit he did work very well moving the ball quickly and getting into a good position. Mills, Hatch and White will be good squad players and will hopefully improve over the season. Team for Cardiff Davies James Svensson Perry Surman Schindler Gillet Lallana Dyer Holmes McGoldrick